Get ready for round 2 of Matichuk vs. Rodriguez

John Rodriguez, former MP for the New Democrats in Nickel Belt and, more recently, mayor of Greater Sudbury from 2006-2010, all but announced Nov.23 that he would try for another term as mayor in the 2014 election.

Stopping just short of a formal declaration, Rodriguez said he was “very positively leaning” towards another run.

He’ll go up against Mayor Marianne Matichuk, who was a political newcomer in 2010 when she defeated Rodriguez in a bitterly fought campaign.

Matichuk confirmed Friday that she would run for re-election in 2014.
“Absolutely,” she said.

When told that Rodriguez had announced he was also leaning toward running, Matichuk responded, “Well, anyone can run for mayor.

“It’s not a surprise,” she said. “I think it will be a very interesting election.”

“We’re doing well in this city. People are happy that we’re moving forward with all the positive things that are happening. So that momentum, I’d like to see continue.”

But Rodriguez said it’s apparent there’s a leadership crisis at city hall, and that Matichuk hasn’t been able to get councillors to work with her.

“I watch now, and I see the city has stopped,” he said. “There’s a lack of leadership, there’s an inability to pull the team together, to develop team spirit at city hall without spending $11,000 to do it.”

The $11,000 reference relates to a now-postponed plan to have councillors work with a consultant on how to better work together. Councillors balked at both the price and the idea of holding the meeting behind closed doors. But Rodriguez said working together was never a problem when he was mayor.

“I ran for mayor and worked, along with the councillors, as a team, to try and make that vision a reality,” he said. “We can’t go on like this. It’s not the problem of the councillors, because I had nine of those councillors with me for four years and we achieved many things.

“People have been stopping me and saying to me, ‘you’ve got to get back in there. You’ve got to get your leadership skills at work again. We want you to think about it.’ So I’m thinking very positively about it.”

He said he would campaign in support of densification, a policy in which developers are encourage to build in areas with existing infrastructure, to maximize their use and saving taxpayer’s money.

“If we want to keep the tax levels balanced and stabilized, we have to bring new revenues to the city,” he said. “So we have to be supportive of density. You can’t keep turning down opportunities to create density and increase revenues.”

He cited the construction of condos at the former hospital on Paris Street and a new apartment building proposed for Long Lake Road as projects that will benefit the city.

“We’re talking about infill projects that will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue,” he said. “We have to make sure those projects go ahead. We can’t turn them down, as long as they meet (planning) requirements ... That’s where the team should be going.”

When he was elected in 2006, Rodriguez famously referred to himself as the bus driver at city council. But he says he wants to be known by a new analogy.

“The new analogy is the conductor of the orchestra,” he said. “The orchestra can only play harmoniously and in tune if the conductor is giving the signals when the different sections will come in. And that’s the analogy I was thinking of when I was at the symphony the other day and I was watching the conductor. And we had that for four years.

“The council and the mayor were in harmony. And we were making great music in the city. We have to go back to that.”

He doesn’t support building a casino downtown, because he says it doesn’t benefit nearby businesses, as casinos are designed to keep you gambling, not to leave and spend money elsewhere.

“My own view is, the casino can stay where it is (at Sudbury Downs in Chelmsford),” he said. “You can put more tables there, you can expand it. There’s lots of room, there’s lots of parking. Anyone who wants to gamble, they can take a bus out there, they can take a car out there.”

What he has in mind for downtown is a new Sudbury arena, which could potentially be built alongside a “cultural centre."

“You can call it a performing arts centre/convention centre,” he said. “But we have to replace that arena. It’s 60 years old. It’s showing its age.”

Rather than looking at debt financing for the arena, Rodriguez said the private-sector should step forward with money.

“We would have an investment in that, as a city, but I expect that the major industrial players in our city would step up to the plate and contribute,” he said. “They owe it to the city, and they owe it to the citizens of this city. And they owe it to themselves.”

He rejects any talk that he would be too old (he will be 77 in 2014) to run.

“It’s just a number,” he said. “Remember that, it’s just a number. I was talking to someone here this afternoon who tells me I look 60. I like that number, so I’ll take that number. I don’t care how old you say I am.”